Rise of Immortals

Rise of Immortals Overview

Rise of Immortals is the latest Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) style game announced. The gameplay is similar to titles like DotA, League of Legends, Avalon Heroes, and Realm of the Titans. Rise of Immortals will offer both team-based competitive modes, and cooperative options. What sets Rise of immortals apart from other games in the genre is the level of persistence. Players will progress the more they play a character, gaining access to new items and more. Sign up now for the closed beta, and keep an eye on the game’s development!

Rise of Immortals Screenshots

Rise of Immortals Featured Video

Full Review

Rise of Immortals Review

There’s a special kind of thrill in player versus player games, the kind of adrenaline that comes from knowing that your opponent has as much skill, knowledge, and drive to beat you as you do for them. Perhaps that’s why competitive arena games – based on Aeon of Strife or Defense of the Ancients – have become so popular lately. As the demand rises, new players are edging into the field, and that’s where Petroglyph’s Rise of Immortals comes into play. Akin to games like Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends, Rise of Immortals offers a slightly different twist to the class battle arena.

There Can Be Only One

Rise of Immortals offers a different lobby style than most games, and it starts with hero (“Immortal”) selection. Before gaining access to the game’s lobby to join games or peek at queues, you’ll be prompted to choose a hero to log in with. The game currently offers only twelve heroes, but the core selection balances all roles, like support and tank, across a variety of skill levels. Some heroes are available for free as limited play, but like other free-to-play arenas, players must eventually purchase a hero through one of the game’s two currencies (earned or cash shop).

On the immortal selection screen, you can clearly see and read about each Immortal’s five abilities, and see their role, damage types, offense and defense, and their general skill ranking. Once you’ve played an Immortal, this screen will also show the Immortal’s stats as you’ve built them. Players are welcome to own and play multiple Immortals; there is no single “character creation.” However, you must log out and back in to change Immortals, instead of choosing before each battle.

Around the Hub

After you’ve chosen an Immortal to play with, you’ll be teleported into the game’s single persistent world area: the Social Hub. This modest area is composed of a single area with several sections where players can hang out, chat, and meet each other between games. This area is also where the game’s vendors are located for consumables and artifacts. Outside of waiting around, you can also join a game queue here through the “Fight!” button at the top of your screen, and manage your character’s inventory and disciplines.

Permanently Progressed

In Rise of Immortals, each Immortal has two experience levels: the in-match tactical level, and the character’s persistent level. Tactical levels are earned each match as the player kills creeps (AI controlled enemies), other players, and their towers, cap at 20, and reset after each match. These tactical levels determine the character’s base stats during the game, and unlock what skills they can use during the battle.

Persistent levels, on the other hand, are earned by playing matches and do not affect in-game progress directly, although they will generally help determine what “level” of player you will be fighting against. Persistent levels also gain “discipline points,” which are used in a three tree talent system. This system lets players put points into bonuses that are either Offensive, Defensive, or Immortal Specific. These bonuses always carry into the game, and include the ability to unlock an Immortal’s fifth “signature ability.” These points can be redistributed as needed between matches.

One final thing that Rise of Immortals offers that’s persistent: artifacts. These purchasable items are permanent, but only four can be equipped at one time into battle. These offer an initial starting advantage in the games, especially if gold becomes tight in a match, but are less powerful than the temporary artifacts purchased in a match. An artifact collection also exists to satisfy the achiever.

Picking a Fight

Once you’re ready to fight, clicking the “Fight!” button at the top of the screen in the hub will display the game’s multiple modes, average wait time, and current number of players. The details of what players are waiting in queue can be viewed by clicking the Details arrow in the bottom right corner of the queue screen. You can only queue for one type of match at a time, and you cannot choose specific games to join.

While the game does not offer a tutorial directly, a “1vE” solo mode is available for players to practice and get comfortable with their skills and Immortal, as well as learn some of the abilities of the randomly selected Immortal they battle. For those who prefer to battle AI-controlled enemies, the game offers two skill levels of 3vE. PvP players can team up from anywhere from 2v2 to 5v5, although the 3v3 and 4v4 matches have been disabled during beta due to queue populations.

Driving a Lane

Matches in Rise of Immortals behave much like other battle-arena games, although with a slightly slower pace. The basic goal of each match is to destroy all the enemy’s towers to win; this is done by pushing down “lanes,” and using your own creeps, towers, and skills to your advantage while preventing the enemy from destroying your towers in the process. Each type of match has a different map layout designed to balance the playing field and challenge players to work together while being split across the map.

Games start out slow, usually, and involve more hanging back and gaining veteran and tactical levels to power up the character, the creeps, and the character’s skills. Players also can buy temporary artifacts in a match with earned gold to power up their character with special passive bonuses. As players get stronger, PvP becomes the forefront of the match. Like any arena game, teamwork and map awareness are key. Rise of Immortals plays in a very classic AoS style, and players of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth will feel right at home.

Keeping it Balanced

Any competitive PvP game has one major challenge to face: balance. Rise of Immortals works to provide balance in a few ways. First, the matchmaking system not attempts to pair relatively even skill levels to keep teams balanced and to keep players of a relatively same skill level together. The matchmaking system’s second defense is to prevent more than one Immortal from being on the same team; that is, while two teams may face off and each have a Psychozen, neither team will have two Psychozens due to the balancing system. Unfortunately, this system lengthens queue times. Petroglyph also works actively to tweak and balance each Immortal’s skills so that no character is too powerful. Although they haven’t reached that balance point just yet, the game remains fairly balanced and some of the more powerful characters remain in the limited free-play selection.

Final Verdict: Good

Rise of Immortals is built with the same, solid formula that games like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth were also built on. Although the game offers some permanent progression tweaks such as persistent levels, talent trees, and artifacts, these features work toward improving character investment without ruining game balance. While a few of the gameplay controls and elements are a little clunky, such as using targeted abilities in a team fight or scrolling the map, the games are generally themselves solid, enjoyable, and balances. What really hurts Rise of Immortals the most is queue times: a serious lack of population, popularity of modes like 3VE, which awards almost as much experience as the 5v5 PvP modes, and the game’s built in balancing system means that some modes get played only once every few hours. Overall, Rise of the Immortals is not terribly different, but if you’re looking for a new twist on the DotA-style genre of online gaming, it’s worth your time.